Chatter

Discovering Demi
Michael Caine says there are two reasons not to dismiss his 1984 turkey Blame It on Rio, in which he plays a man in a midlife crisis who has an affair with his best friend's daughter. "I've never met a middle-aged man who didn't like that movie," says the Oscar-winner. "And Demi Moore was my daughter in it." Caine, 70, who stars in the upcoming drama Secondhand Lions, recalls that even then, the unknown 21-year-old actress had a certain star quality. "I did a scene with Demi, and after she finished her close-up, I said, 'You're going to be a big star one day.' She said, 'You're full of s---, Michael.' But I was right."

Bosom Wisdom
Ladies, take a tip from model Tyra Banks on your next lingerie-buying trip: Bigger is better. "[Most] women wear the wrong bra size. They usually wear ones that are too small, and when your bra is too tight, you end up with four boobs because it cuts you in half," says Banks, 29, who recently auditioned contestants for the second installment of UPN's reality series America's Next Top Model. "You get the 'fat back' effect. Actually, I have that problem all the time."

Gel Phone
Practical jokes are as common on the ER set as fake blood, according to Mekhi Phifer. "When there's a scene where somebody answers the phone, one of us will put surgical lubricant on [the earpiece]," says Phifer, 28, who returns as cocky resident Gregory Pratt when the NBC series resumes on Sept. 25. "So in the middle of the scene, someone will pick up the phone, and say, 'Hello?...Dang!' and they've got an earful of jelly."

Teen Spirit
Although she was 22 at the time, Alison Lohman fooled director Ridley Scott into believing she was only 14 to nab the role of the estranged teenage daughter of a scam artist (Nicolas Cage) in Matchstick Men. "I thought, 'She's really good for someone this young,' " says Scott, 65. Recalls Lohman: "It was the ultimate con. If I couldn't con him, then I didn't deserve the part." Her 14-year-old cousin, Jessie, helped the actress, now 23, hone her teen routine. "We hung out at the mall all the time. We got acrylics put on our nails," says Lohman. "We went to Starbucks, had Frappuccinos and talked about boys, boys, boys. She's going to hate me now."

The Naked Truth
Cuba Gooding Jr. understands why costar Beyoncé Knowles was uneasy with their kissing scenes in the comedy The Fighting Temptations. "She was probably a little nervous, because for her, it was more about, 'Oh, no, Pm performing for the peanut gallery,' " says Gooding, 35, who previously went to great lengths to loosen up before shooting intimate scenes. " 'Butt Naked' was my nickname for a long time on movie sets," says Gooding, "because when I had a love scene, I'd run butt naked through the set just to show them, 'Who cares?' "